The sixth initiative of the 7i program: “Favor exchanges” focused on the telecoms and media industries
Accelerating the implementation of New-Generation services and supporting the rapid growth of telecoms and media in emerging economies is one of the driving forces behind this initiative.

As part of its 7i program, Bull has launched its sixth initiative, aimed at telecoms operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). By putting the telecommunications and media industries at the heart of one of its seven key strategic initiatives, Bull is not only demonstrating its commitment to supporting telecoms operators as they develop new convergent services, but also its own aspirations to grow its business in this very rapidly evolving sector.

This initiative reflects the fundamental transformation that Bull has undergone in recent years combining high added-value services with Bull’s expertise as a manufacturer. At a time of convergence and consolidation, Bull has all the relevant skills to effectively assist telecoms operators in developing and integrating new services into their information systems and networks. Our business in this area has doubled in the space of just three years, clearly illustrating the recognition we have achieved in this market and the attractiveness of our unique mix of skills. As a systems integrator, and also as an IT maker familiar with the issues faced by our telecoms equipment manufacturers partners, we do respond to the dual challenge to achieve both agility and robustness in an increasingly innovative and international telecoms market.

As a systems integrator and partner of telecoms equipment manufacturers, Bull effectively applies its IT expertise and its manufacturing culture to implement flexible, high-performance and innovative solutions across the world.

Innovation

Another legacy of its history, Bull has always chosen the path of innovation and dedicated significant investment to R&D. As a result, the company has regularly been one of the European pioneers in emerging technologies: not only in the field of computing, but also in telecoms where Bull has formed alliances with start-ups, equipment manufacturers and developers to bring new solutions to market. For example, Bull was one of the earliest to invest in IP infrastructures, building partnerships with innovative new businesses including Thomson Cirpack, Dilithium, eServGlobal, Highdeal and StreamWIDE who provide the building bricks for developing the service platforms that are now so essential to operators’ competitive positioning. By incorporating the latest technologies into its projects, Bull can truly define itself as an Integrator, an Industrial and an Innovator; Bull can genuinely deliver innovation and robustness while optimizing costs and performance.

“Managing our in-flight ‘Mobile OnAir’ phone service and ‘Internet OnAir’ Internet access service requires a high-performance information system, given that we operate at the crossroads between the worlds of telecommunications and aeronautics,” explained Jean-Damien Beaud, Information Technology & Systems Director at OnAir. “Of course, there were no off-the-shelf solutions available in this sector, so it was necessary to integrate specific developments with a flexible billing system. We are very pleased with Bull’s ability to put forward innovative solutions, and to implement a comprehensive system that covers all the company’s business-critical functions: from managing commercial relationships to billing, and including managing the installation programs for systems on board aircraft and tracking key performance indicators, while also taking full account of numerous regulatory requirements. The flexibility of the solution – which is capable of evolving in line with the growth of the company’s business – has contributed to OnAir’s agility and performance.”

Agility

For telecoms operators, agility means above all having the capacity to build offerings that constantly adapt to the very rapid evolutions in the marketplace. In an industry sector where competition is exacerbated by innovation, time to market is vital. Bull, as ‘Architect of an Open World™’, is at the heart of the current revolution in approaches to systems development and project management. Thanks to its in-depth understanding of the very latest technological standards and its expertise in this sector, Bull can provide all the necessary agility and flexibility that telecoms operators demand when faced with the need to implement new service platforms based on new standard such as SIP, IMS and Web 2.0.
Orange.pl – developed AMG.net, a Bull company – voted the best business portal in Poland. At the end of February 2008, Swedish consulting firm Hallvarsson & Halvarsson published a report in which sixteen Polish corporate websites were evaluated. The results showed that three of the five best web portals in Poland were developed by AMG.net.

Robustness

When it comes to ensuring the robustness of IT infrastructures and service quality, Bull applies its expertise born out of the design of some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Its ability to ensure robustness while managing complexity means that the Group is particularly well placed to deliver infrastructures that provide ‘carrier grade’ levels of reliability: offering extremely high levels of service under all types of conditions. For example, Bull is skilled at managing the evolution of network cores towards IMS-type architectures and implementing solutions to improve the remote management of telecoms equipment (‘boxes’ and other terminals) in the homes of operators’ customers.

Bull is strengthening its telecoms competency centers to accelerate the deployment of innovative Triple and Quadruple Play services

As part of its sixth initiative, Bull has strengthened its telecoms centers of expertise – located across three continents in France, Poland, Brazil, Morocco and Mauritius – in order to accelerate developments working towards new IP-based technologies and innovative services. Capitalizing on its experienced gained on many large-scale projects, the location of its various centers of expertise enables Bull to meet the specific needs of each market worldwide, to help operators:

Manage the risks, costs and timescales associated with their projects, using the proven professional and automated methodologies embodied in NovaForge™, its software development platform

Integrate new services into their OSS/BSS systems

Reinforce their business agility by developing new services, particularly those built around an IP infrastructure

Support growth with flexible systems that are easy to extend, featuring the best technologies on the market, as well as Open Source components and solutions from software publishers chosen to be Bull’s partners.

International coverage

From its initial based in France, Bull’s activities have extended across Western Europe, all the way to Africa where the Group has developed a unique capacity to deliver targeted projects using mixed teams that combine local specialists with experts from its worldwide network of competence centers, while at the same time ensuring effective skills transfer. The acquisition of AMG.net in Poland has given Bull a significant presence in Central and Eastern Europe. This subsidiary, – has achieved significant growth, with a doubling of its workforce since becoming part of Bull in April 2006. The other mainstay of Bull’s international presence in telecoms is Latin America, where Bull Brazil has succeeded in ensuring that this market is one of its key sectors of expertise and excellence.
Bull is also well versed in supporting the very dynamic growth in the emerging markets of Europe, Latin America and Africa in the area of Triple and Quadruple Play. This has proved to be a key differentiator, recognized and appreciated by customers including the France Telecom/Orange group, Embratel, Vivo and Wana.
Moreover, the Bull teams deliver associated services (hosting, facility management and security) in over 60 countries.

To mark the launch of this latest initiative, Bull has jointly publishing a white paper with consulting and research firm IDATE, entitled: “The drive for innovation, and mastering the unexpected”.